Tyson Barrie of the Colorado Avalanche brings the puck up the ice as Mikael Granlund of the Minnesota Wild pursues during the first quarter of a playoff game on April 17, 2014. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Sorry it’s been a little while since my last Hockey Talk podcast, especially since the Avs’ season ended about three weeks ago. As I said earlier on this blog, once the hockey season ends, I am thrown into the brig of general assignment stories. That means I’m just as apt to be writing a story about the Rapids goalie as I am of the Avs.

But here is 55 solid minutes of Avalanche talk here, with two of my homies — Darrell Rubin and Ryan Boulding. We talk about the Avs’ exit from the playoff, and why that happened, in detail.

Matt Duchene led the Avalanche in scoring last season, with 23 goals and 70 points. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

It was a great season for No. 9. All, except that finish. But it was just bad luck as to why Matt Duchene and Avalanche fans won’t fondly remember his final few weeks of the season.

If not for an unfortunate knee-on-knee collision with teammate Jamie McGinn late in the year, there’s no telling what Duchene might have been able to accomplish along with his team in the playoffs.

He only got to play two games in the playoffs. Granted, the Avs had a 3-2 series lead when he came back, so they should have been able to win one game to extend his season a lot more. But that didn’t happen. Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.